Art and Architecture

Research Resources in the College Archives

The College Archives, housing the records of Bedford College and Royal Holloway College, contain some of the earliest, most comprehensive and varied collections relating to women’s higher education and history in Britain since the nineteenth century. Preserved within these collections are architectural plans and papers for the distinctive Founder’s Building, and other Royal Holloway and Bedford College sites, revealing practical and stylistic developments in architecture over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Records relating to the Royal Holloway Picture Gallery collection, containing some of the most important paintings of the Victorian period, document the importance of the Picture Gallery collection as a cultural and financial asset to the College. Extensive photographic collections also provide insight into student domestic, material and aesthetic tastes and fashions, whilst theatre company collections provide colourful documentation of contemporary dramatic concepts and performances. Accessible to all undergraduate and postgraduate students, the College Archives are a rich, unique and accessible research resource for those with an academic or personal interest in art, architecture, and material culture and identity.

The Royal Holloway and Bedford College collections can be used to research a variety of subject areas relating to art and architecture, including:

• Victorian and Edwardian art • Patronage of the arts • Nineteenth and twentieth century architecture • Landscape design • History of the domestic interior • Victorian and Edwardian femininity • Material culture • Women’s fashion (see online ‘College Fashion Exhibition’ on the Archives website) • Visual representation through photography • The study of art as an academic subject at Bedford College and Royal Holloway College • Performing arts

Catalogued records relating to art:

• Herringham Collection (1917-1992) - These papers relate to the Herringham bequest, a collection of pictures, prints and curios lent to Bedford College in 1918 by Lady Christiana Herringham, some of which are on display in the archives. Lady Herringham was an expert copyist of the Italian masters and had a strong interest in Indian art and the education of women. She also played a crucial role in the foundation of the National Art Collections Fund,

1 created to save artworks for British public collections. Papers in the Collection include: o Notes on Lady Herringham’s work, letters and a classified list of the Herringham Collection o Notes relating to Lady Herringham’s interest in Indian paintings o Catalogue lists for exhibitions o Correspondence, sale catalogues, reports and minutes relating to the sale of part of the Herringham Collection in the early 1980s and the distribution of the remainder of the collection at Royal Holloway • Papers of the Bedford College Art School (1900-1913) • Papers of the curator of the Picture Gallery at Royal Holloway College (1881-1977), including: o Visitors books (1887-1980) o Sale and exhibition catalogues (1881-1968) o Magazine and journal articles regarding the Picture Gallery collections (1897-1971) o Correspondence of the curator of the Picture Gallery (1889-1939), including correspondence with the artists Luke Fildes, Philip Laszlo, Edwin Long, Thomas Faed, Thomas Sidney Cooper, John Pettie and William Powell Frith • Research papers for Jeannie Chapel’s ‘Victorian Taste: The Complete Catalogue of Paintings at the Royal Holloway College’, published in 1978, including biographical notes on artists and sitters for portraits • Personal papers of Professor Caroline Spurgeon (1890-1936), including records of her research on John Ruskin, the nineteenth century British author, artist, art critic and philosopher • Personal papers of William Cosmo Monkhouse, English poet and art critic (1889-1902,1965), including a memoir of William Cosmo Monkhouse and an article on Monkhouse as an art critic in The Art Journal, 1902

Catalogued records of artwork relating to Bedford College, Royal Holloway College and Thomas Holloway’s Sanatorium at Virginia Water:

• Drawings and paintings of Bedford College staff and buildings (c. 1861-1951) • Drawings, prints and watercolours of Royal Holloway College exteriors and interiors (c.1879 - c.1908), including drawings by the Italian sculptor Ceccardo Fucignia of the reliefs he created in the Royal Holloway College Chapel (c. 1882-1883) • Copies of sketches and prints of the Sanatorium (n.d.)

Catalogued records relating to architecture:

• Papers relating to the buildings and residences at Bedford College (1873-1985), including: o Plans of Bedford College’s Regents Park buildings (1910-1913) o Papers relating to post-war reconstruction at Bedford College (1942-1967) o Papers relating to gardens and landscaping of Bedford College grounds (1921-1954) o Correspondence with the architect in charge of the conversion and development of the Regent’s Park site (1910-1915) • Regents Park site plans (1908-1911)

2 • Plans and diagrams of Royal Holloway College (1883-1927), including: o Plans and diagrams of the Founder’s Building – many signed by the architect William Crossland (1883-1927) – Note: some of these records are in a fragile condition and may be unfit for production – please contact the College Archivist for further information. o Plans and diagrams of the Royal Holloway College Estate (formerly Mount Lee estate) (1886-1927) • Plans for New Halls, Kingswood and 1960s development at Royal Holloway College • A copy of World Review, January 1951, containing an article on ‘Victorian Architecture’ by John Betjeman, referring to W.H. Crossland’s work at Royal Holloway College

Other highlights from the collections include:

• A large collection of formal and informal photographs of Bedford College and Royal Holloway College buildings, interiors, and staff and student rooms dating from the 1880s. • A large collection of formal and informal staff and student photographs dating from the 1880s, including several personal albums. • Student magazines, containing commentaries on contemporary academic, social and cultural issues, and articles on various leisure activities, literature and the performing arts. • Press-cuttings and newspaper and magazine articles relating to Bedford College and Royal Holloway College, providing examples of nineteenth and twentieth century advertising, journalism and contemporary concerns. • The archives of the controversial Red Shift (1982-2007), Gay Sweatshop (1974-1995) and Half Moon (1972-1990) theatre companies, containing publicity material, photographs and production records. • The Coton Collection of dance memorabilia, including a large and colourful collection of programmes and photographs dating from the first half of the twentieth century and originating from the personal library of the eminent dance critic Edward Haddakin (1906-1969).

The Archives Reading Room holds a number of reference works on the Picture Gallery collection, various artists, architecture and photography, including:

The Price of Beauty: Edwin Long’s Babylonian Marriage Market (1875), (Libraries and Arts Service of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in Association with Royal Holloway College, 2004)

Bills, M., and Knight, V., William Powell Frith: Painting the Victorian Age, (Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London, 2006)

Cowling, M., A Brief Guide to the Royal Holloway Collection

Dimond, F., Developing the Picture: Queen Alexandria and the Art of Photography, (Royal Collection Enterprises Ltd., St James’s Palace, London, 2004)

Elliot, J., Palaces, Patronage and Pills: Thomas Holloway, his Sanatorium, College and Picture Gallery, (Royal Holloway, University of London, 1996)

Kuzmanović, N., J.P. Cooper: Designer and Craftsman of the Arts and Crafts Movement, (Sutton Publishing Ltd, Stroud, 1999)

Stewart, B., Thomas Sidney Cooper of Canterbury, (Maresborough Books, Rainham, 1983)

Vickery, M.B., Buildings for Bluestockings: The Architecture and Social History of Women’s Colleges in Late Victorian England, (Associated University Presses, Inc., Crowbury, 1999)

Publications on the history of Bedford and Royal Holloway Colleges, women’s education, and the life and work of Thomas Holloway are also available for consultation in the Reading Room.

Examples of some relevant dissertations and theses researched using records from the College Archives (available for consultation in the Archives Reading Room):

Place, M., Does Form follow Function in William Henry Crossland’s Royal Holloway College?

Biltcliff, P., A Cultural Geography of Victorian Art Collecting: Identity, acquisition and display, (PhD, RHUL, 2007)

Hamlett, J., Gender and the Social Interior: Personal rooms at Royal Holloway and Oxford and Cambridge Universities, 1890-1910, (MA, RHUL, 2001)

Kenny, C., The Lady Herringham Collection, (MA, University of London, 1998)

Appointment and Contact Details:

An appointment is necessary if you wish to view records from the archives. Please contact us at [email protected] to arrange an appointment.

However, you are welcome to visit the Archive Service without appointment to enquire about the collections and to view our corridor displays.

Further information about the Archive Service, including the online catalogue, facilities, location details, opening hours and contact details can be found on our website at http://www.rhul.ac.uk/archives.